Curators Haley O’Connor, left, and Natalie Purkey stand in their Stairwell Gallery, a tiny space next door to Nick’s Restaurant on Broadway in Providence, as artists Dan Talbot and Eamon Brown work on hanging their show entitled “Fuddy Duddy” in the background.

The Providence Journal / Sandor Bodo

PROVIDENCE Even people who generally avoid contemporary art galleries often have strong ideas about how they’re supposed to look. The walls? White, of course. The floors? Bare, except for the occasional piece of sculpture (abstract, naturally). And the dÉcor? Let’s just say that most prison cells look warm and welcoming by comparison.

Certainly, there’s some truth to those stereotypes. But judging by a trio of new Providence-area galleries, the familiar “white box” gallery space isn’t the only way for art lovers to experience cutting-edge art.

A case in point: the Stairwell Gallery. True to its name, the gallery came into being nearly two years ago when local artists Haley O’Connor and Natalie Purkey began holding exhibits in a friend’s apartment. Since most of the apartment was occupied already, O’Connor and Purkey used the only space available: a three-story stairwell.

Rather than a handicap, the two artists say the tight quarters actually helped them focus their shows.

“Sometimes it’s better to have limits placed on what you can do,” says O’Connor, a 31-year-old Oregonian who moved here five years ago. “If we’d had a lot more space to work with, we probably would have been totally lost. But having such a small space really forced us to be very organized. Every show was a challenge.”

Last fall, O’Connor and Purkey moved the gallery to a larger space at 504 Broadway. And while it’s still easy to miss — first-time visitors should look for the gallery’s next door neighbor, Nick’s on Broadway, a popular West Side eatery — O’Connor and Purkey say they’re happy to have a bit more room to work with.

“Some people come in and they’re, like, ‘Oh, your gallery is so small,’ ” says Purkey, 24, a California native with a bachelor’s degree in art from San Diego State University. “But compared to where we started, it’s huge.”

In other respects, the gallery hasn’t changed much at all.

It’s still very much an artist-run space, with a casually bohemian vibe that’s more friendly than forbidding. It still showcases a wide range of artworks, ranging from small-scale prints and drawings to more exotic fare such as video and performance art. And prices for most of the gallery’s artworks are very reasonable — often no more than a few hundred dollars each.

“That’s something we believe in very strongly,” says O’Connor. “We think art should be affordable.”

The gallery is also an important outlet for members of the city’s underground art and music scene. A collection of small prints and posters in the gallery’s back room, for example, includes works by Brian Chippendale, Jungil Hong and Matt Brinkman — all artists associated with the legendary (and, sadly, now demolished) Fort Thunder artists’ space in Olneyville. The gallery has also shown work by members of the Dirt Palace, a local women’s art collective, and Jim Drain, another Fort Thunder alumnus who has won several major art prizes.

“One of the great things about Providence is that it has a really strong artists’ community” says O’Connor. “You don’t find that in New York. You don’t find it on the West Coast. But in Providence, people really seem to care for each other and be supportive of each other. As artists and gallery owners, we’re trying to do our part.”

Hours for the Stairwell Gallery are Thursday-Sunday, 11-4 and by appointment at www.glaciersofnice. The gallery’s current show features the work of painters Eamon Brown and Dan Talbot.

At first glance, the month-old Gail Cahalan Gallery looks like a typical white-walled gallery space. There’s plenty of glass and concrete, and while the gallery’s walls are mostly brick, the 1500-square-foot space is subdivided into smaller sections by a series of white panels and partitions. The rest of the dÉcor — an empty desk, a couple of laptop computers and a pile of half-opened packing boxes — is appropriately Spartan.

Then you look outside. Part of the sprawling new Providence Piers development on Allens Avenue, the gallery is located in a gritty area that, until recently, was better known for its strip clubs and adult video stores than its art galleries.

“For some reason, people keep asking us why we opened an art gallery here,” laughs gallery co-director Dave Loewenstein. “And basically we tell them two things. First, we’re working with some great people here at Providence Piers and, second, that we really think this area is an up-and-coming part of the city. Then again, there are times when it definitely feels like we’re on the wild frontier.”

Loewenstein manages the gallery with Finn Yonkers, a New York-trained artist and designer who runs a small graphic design studio also located at Providence Piers. Yonkers knew Loewenstein from the Full Circle Gallery, a short-lived downtown gallery Loewenstein operated from 1999 to 2000. He also knew the owners of Providence Piers — local developer Partick Conley and his wife, Gail Cahalan Conley.

Eventually, the Conleys agreed to let Yonkers and Loewenstein take over a small first-floor space on the west side of the development, facing Allens Avenue. Gail Cahalan Conley, meanwhile, signed on as the gallery’s owner.

“Everything just sort of came together,” says Loewenstein.

Asked what visitors can expect from the gallery, Yonkers and Loewenstein say they plan to offer a mix of works by both local and out-of-state artists. The gallery’s opening exhibit, for example, featured paintings by Rhode Island artists Jason Brockert, Kathy Hodge and Arthur Moore. That was followed by an exhibit featuring photographs of Cuba by two photographers — one Irish, the other Iranian.

The show, which closed recently, was arranged by another resident of Providence Piers: Jose Torrealba, director of the Providence Latin American Film Festival.

“That’s one of the great things about being in a place like Providence Piers, which is home to a lot of artists and creative businesses,” Loewenstein says. “Sometimes mounting a show is as easy was walking across the hall or climbing a flight of stairs.”

The Gail Cahalan Gallery ( www.gcgallery.net) is at 200 Allens Ave. in Providence. Hours are Wednesday-Friday 1-5 and Saturday noon-5. The gallery’s current exhibit features baseball paintings by Rhode Island artist Peter Campbell.

For cramped quarters, it’s hard to beat the 5 Traverse Gallery, which occupies a tiny storefront space on Traverse Street in Fox Point. Nevertheless, the gallery’s current exhibit — a display of eye-catching bikes and skateboards made and decorated by local artists — has been generating the kind of buzz that many larger galleries might envy.

“It’s definitely gotten a lot of attention,” says gallery owner Jesse Smith. “Some people, especially the younger kids, get it immediately, while other people have a hard time thinking of bikes and skateboards as art. As a gallery owner, any time you can get people talking and debating about a show, that’s a good thing.”

Smith, 35, grew up in Saunderstown and studied art and filmmaking in New York City. He says he got the idea for the gallery after visiting last year’s Art Basel Miami, the American counterpart of Europe’s biggest contemporary art fair.

“It’s a huge fair with dozens of galleries and dealers,” Smith says. “But as I walked around, I kept thinking of all the artists I knew in Rhode Island who were doing things that were just as good.”

Since opening the 5 Traverse Gallery in May, Smith has focused mainly on one- and two-artist shows. (“It’s really too small for group shows,” he says.) An exception is the gallery’s current offering, which features about a dozen skateboards and half as many bikes, each displayed like pieces of fine art.

While the result looks more like something you’d find in a hip New York or West Coast gallery, everything in the show has an Ocean State pedigree: Bristol-based CandySpanks Longboards made the skateboards, which were then decorated by local artists such as Xander Morrow, Will Schaff and Alex Goldberg. The bikes, meanwhile, showcase the handiwork of two local bike-makers: Peter Fuller and Chris Bull.

“Basically, it’s about how useful things can be art, while art can be useful,” Smith says.

The 5 Traverse Gallery (5traverse.com) is located at 5 Traverse St. in Providence. Hours are Wednesday-Saturday 11-7. The gallery’s current exhibit runs through Oct. 20.

bvansicl@projo.com